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I was wondering what would be some good units to fight Vampire counts with but not sure what to start with other than witch hunter and warrior priest

Easiest way to beat VC is to aim for the hero and pick them off quickly.

Handgunners, cannons, anything ranged works wonders.
Kill them and from there it becomes alot easier.
Even a mortar helps with blocks of models.

Just need enough firepower to drop their hero as soon as possible.

Any melee units that work well on them?

Pressure the VC hero and watch its army crumble. Dont forget they are a slow arny.

I would try ranged attacks vs running melee to the VC hero. You dont want to get your vampire kill team bogged in zombies.

 Vri wrote:
Pressure the VC hero and watch its army crumble. Dont forget they are a slow arny.

I would try ranged attacks vs running melee to the VC hero. You dont want to get your vampire kill team bogged in zombies.

This.

If you want try and melee him you'll need an exceptionally hard hitting unit that can withstand attrition and that can be very expensive at a low points cost.

Get a good amount of shooting done ont the Vampire's unit and then - if you really want to - run him down with heavy cavalry or something. But I'd just stick to the massed shooting.

Pour everything you have into the unit.

I'd disagree with shooting, the best way to deal with Vampires is with static combat rez. Zombies and Skelletons can't kill jack and a Hero level Vampire doesn't generate much combat rez either. A simple block with full command, War banner, BSB and 5 ranks (he has no shooting) should handily win combat with anything a Vampire can throw out at 500pts. He won't have a wizard over level 2 meaning he will only throw out a single Invocation each turn while your forcing an instability check at like -4 each turn.

A Killy Vampire Hero will only kill 3-4 models a turn at most and will cost a good 1/3 of his points cost. If you can lock him up in combat against an unkillable BSB (2+ re-rollable Sv) his combat rez will drop to nothing. Cue cumbling to death,

Will magic well?

Not necessary but not a bad idea. A Priest and a captain BSB would probably fill up your hero allowance plenty. A Priest with a Ruby Ring of Ruin can fill up your magic needs.

 ALEXisAWESOME wrote:
Not necessary but not a bad idea. A Priest and a captain BSB would probably fill up your hero allowance plenty. A Priest with a Ruby Ring of Ruin can fill up your magic needs.

A priest and a captain IS your core allowance. 125pts on the nose. You cant buy any equipment beyond what the characters get naked. If fact it is impossible to legally get a BSB in 500pts Empire. You cant really honestly tool up a characfer either unless you take just one.


First lets take a look at whatg the opponent can do with 500pts.
You can get a level 1 vampire on that, which can be problematic to deal with at those points levels.
125pts will buy a decent sized skeleton block, better than zombies here to get some 'quality', a spirit host for trolling etc

Lets take a look:

Vampire Counts 500pts

Hero, [up to 125pts]
Vampire level 1, Summon creatures of the night, heavy armour, sword and board, casts Invocation of Nehek =122pts

Core, [125pts +]
23 skeletons with full command = 145pts

Special, [up to 250pts]

Spirit Host = 45pts

3 Crypt Horrors, inc champion = 124pts

2 Fell Bats = 32pts

2 Fell Bats = 32pts
Sub total = 233pts

total = 500pts

The above is going to be nasty to deal with. At very low points level VC can take a combat character and a usable wizard. The spell he gets combined with his vampiric power will allow him to recover wounds from anywhere in his army, which is kept MSU for that reason, and he can spam build bats so long as he keeps the units he has alive. an ethereal enemy in 500pt is a serious problem as it can avoid anything that is a threat to it. Skeleton warriors could be replaced by zombies, in which case the vamp can add more, but topping up is more realistic than to grow the unit. The bats can grow because the vampire can hold them back and add a couple of bats a turn, each pair of bats summoned (two wounds gained per unit) from a successful cast adds 6.4% to the actual total points value of the army, even if we discount everything else the spell can do.
If the vampire is not enough of a threat a minimum unit of crypt horrors will cause problems, and again likely heal itself as fast as its being depleted.

Other 500pt armies will likely be similar, a vampire, about 125pts of minimum core, and the rest special. A necromancer is possible, but why you only get a level 2 with some change its not worth it. The special choices can vary alot. Vargheists are quite possible at this points level, as are Grave Guard which can be topped up as quickly as skeletons.

Take two:

Hero, [up to 125pts]
Vampire level 1, Summon creatures of the night, heavy armour, sword and board, casts Invocation of Nehek =122pts


Core, [125pts +]

29 zombies = 87pts

6 dire wolves = 48pts
Sub Total = 135pts


Special, [up to 250pts]

Spirit Host = 45pts

13 Grave Guard with great weapons and champion = 166pts

2 Fell Bats = 32pts

Sub total = 243pts

Total = 500

Second list uses zombies for massing, dire wolves to be boosted beyond starting numbers, like the bats, the spirit host and grave guard as the main fighting unit. The Grave guard have the advantage of being recovered at a rate of d6+1 per casting of Invocation of Nehek, but aren't as resilient as the Crypt Horrors and can be crumbled in one turns fighting by a reasonable unit.

I still see problems however you cut it.

You will need:

- A magic weapon to deal with ethereal.
- Two combat units, because the vamps will want to keep some units out of the fight and they will be zombies, or something the character can grow over minimum size.
- Means of killing the vampire, as that's the easiest way to win.


Witch Hunter
- brace of pistols, because snipe and rerolling to hit and wound might finish off a vampire.
- Warrior Bane sword, because its a cheap 5pt magic sword to kill spooks with, you reroll to wounds with your witch hunter so anything nasty you hit and you dont kill will have less attacks back.
- Talisman of Preservation, round out your item allowance.
= 105pts


For fighting vamps Witch Hunter is the go to guy. the rest of the list is full of hard choices, but to me that one is pretty easy. He has everythign you need, dirt cheap, bonus vs undead, good character hunter skills facingan opponent which will autolose if his character dies. Hits the sweet spot for this lineup.If you are playinga 500pt mingame you only have 125pts for your 25%, this limits a lot for everyone.

For manatory core choose between halberdiers for choppiness, or knights. You will need a champion for challenges

For the rest of your points buy greatswords because you need stubborn and place your witch hunter in to lead them.
Buy stubborn detachments of swordsmen to tie up what the vamps have floating about. You can have a dozen greatswords with full command, and an equal number of stubborn swordsmen to back them up. Slightly less if you want to have full ranks on the halberdiers.

They should be choppy enough to beat the dead.

Do remember that during end times points allowance for heroes and lords was increased to 50%, with a maximum 35% spent on lords. This was intended to be in effect in all games, not just end times games.

End Times de-balances were for End Times, Because GW had moved on and didn't care about Warhammer no distinction was made. Warhammer moved to End Times and that was that, and yes the official line was that the changes were not temporary because when someone wants to field Nagash nobody should be able to say no.

This is why when Gw killed off the universe the game moved to three settings. 8th, End Times and AoS, this excludes the multiple legacy settings.

The OP has not as yet stated he is using End Times.
As default assume standard 8th edition rules are used, which at least have some semblance of balance. 50% characters at 500pts wouldnt hurt the game, it only gets stupid later.